The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I've been in the community for a few years now and it's still exciting to me when I see book release by friends I've made. This was my first time reading The Poisons We Drink in any form and I wanted to give my honest opinion. I received an arc from Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review. If you're interested in a copy you can purchase it here. 

The Poisons We Drink follows Venus, an 18 yr old witcher, who has been brewing illegal love potions to help support her family. The country is currently dived and there is a bill that has been proposed that will be detrimental to magic users. After losing her mother Venus vows to keep her younger sister safe and get revenge. Venus has deviation which allows her to tap into immense power. She uses these powers to brew potions that will poison some of DC's most influential politicians.

It took some time for me to connect to the story and it didn't fully capture my attention until around the 40% mark. That was when the action really kicked it up a notch for me and I was interested in seeing Venus kick ass and take names. Despite it taking longer for me to get into I will note that the book consistently moved at a fast pace so the beginning wasn't a drag. So much was happening and we were getting an introduction to the society of witchers but also learning politics about both sides, it was just not easy for me to connect at first as I was processing the information. But when I did I found myself cheering Venus on because so rare is it where I pick up a fantasy that promises me a fierce heroine and delivers!

One of the things that really shone in this book and made it stand out from other YA fantasies was the focus on Venus' family. So often family is left out of these stories for teenage characters to take on the world by themselves. Venus has a strong family unit with her uncle, sister, and cousin especially doing their fair share of assisting her and were key to the big battle at the end.

I listened to this partially via audiobook and the narrator was phenomenal! There were one or two voices that didn't really fit the characters but she gave them all their own distinct voices. And she gave a very animated performance that really brought the story to life.